


How He Met Their Mother

by TheOnlySongintheForest



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Busting, Canon Compliant, Catchphrases, England - Freeform, F/M, Grandparents, Love Händel - Freeform, Origin Story, Pre-Canon, Start 'em young, Young Candace, Young Ferb, Young Phineas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-12-01 22:14:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20915642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlySongintheForest/pseuds/TheOnlySongintheForest
Summary: Origin story of the Flynn-Fletcher clan. As canon-compliant as possible, but as always not everything is perfect. I own nothing but my love for the characters.





	How He Met Their Mother

It wasn’t that Ferb couldn’t talk. In fact, he had an extensive vocabulary thanks to his proclivity for reading that began at an early age. His grandparents had a well-stocked library and he availed himself of the volumes every chance he got. But his grandparents also lived in an isolated country village outside of London. The only notable feature was a National Trust castle just down the road.  
  
Lawrence Fletcher did his best to socialise his young son, but he was also protective of the only remanent of his beloved wife, Elizabeth. His parents had been supportive after her death, delighted to open their home to their son and grandson. Lawrence’s business had suffered though, a combination of competition in the big city and his own loss of interest in almost everything in the years following his wife’s death.  
  
When Ferb was four, his father received a letter from a friend and business associate in America. He was looking for a partner in his South Dakota antique shop that could eventually take over when he retired. Lawrence knew absolutely nothing about the strange sounding state, but suddenly the prospect of a new life for himself and his son seemed too good to pass up.  
  
They packed up their few belongings and said a tearful goodbye to Winnie and Reginald Fletcher. As their flight made its slow and steady way across the Atlantic though, Lawrence was secretly glad to be leaving the small, wet island behind. Hopefully in this new land, he and his son could flourish without the ghost of Elizabeth in every place they went.  
  
The town they ended up in was called Danville. Lawrence enrolled Ferb in a local preschool to provide some structure for his active imagination. However, the teachers promptly informed him that the boy’s lack of speech “might indicate a more serious social or cognitive disorder.” Never mind that he had already showed engineering skills far beyond his age, constructing skyscrapers from Lincoln Logs, motorizing Hot Wheels, and creating real steam engine model trains. These were written off as savant-type traits. One teacher asked, “Have you considered placing him a special school?”  
  
When the school year was done, Lawrence withdrew his son from the system. He took the boy to work with him, where he seemed to have a knack for guiding customers to exactly what they were looking for. On Sunday afternoons the two would set out to explore the city’s many parks.  
  
One Sunday in particular, they discovered a small park in the middle of a quiet suburb. It had shaded benches where Lawrence settled with a book, and a large sandbox Ferb gravitated toward. From the lunch box he carried, he poured a whole platoon of green army men and began arranging them in battle position.  
  
As he scooped sand into a fort for his men, a short, red-headed kid came running up. “Hey! Are you playing army? That’s awesome. I have some guys too. Can I play? We can recreate the battle of Waterloo.”  
  
Ferb blinked at the energetic boy, then shrugged.  
  
“Cool,” he was already smoothing the sand for their miniature battlefield. “My name’s Phineas. What’s your name?”  
  
“Ferb.”  
  
“Woah! You’re British? That’s so great. I’ve always wanted to visit England. I know all about the Tower of London and the Black Death and the Gunpowder Plot and….” The boy rambled on about his interest in the United Kingdom, occasionally interrupting himself to comment on the position of one or another placement of their toy soldiers.  
  
They were nearly finished when another red-headed child, a girl a few years older than the boys, approached. “Phineas, what are you up to now?” She asked in a shrill voice. “And who’s this kid? One of your accomplices?”  
  
“This is Ferb. Ferb, this is my sister Candace.” As Phineas gestured to his sister, one of the tiny cannons fired, it’s miniature missile pinging against the metal bars of the jungle gym.  
  
“Ooo. I’m telling Mom.” Candace stomped off across the park toward a woman whose red hair left no doubt as to her relation to the two children. “Mom!” she yelled. “Phineas made a working recreation of the battle of Waterloo!”  
  
“Aw, how nice,” Linda Flynn replied. “I’d love to see it.”  
  
As the girl pulled her mother’s hand, however, a boy in a skull shirt ran past Phineas and Ferb. The sand he kicked up in his wake showered the miniature battlefield, wiping out the British and French forces in a grainy avalanche.  
  
“Now where’s this cute little battlefield?” Linda smiled at the boys.  
  
“It got buried,” Phineas replied, as Candace scowled behind her mother. “But look, this is my new friend, Ferb.”  
  
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Ferb.”  
  
Lawrence, noticing the commotion around his son, came over. Initially alarmed by the activity, he paused when he noticed the woman laughing with the children. Her light auburn hair was pulled into a side ponytail, resting on the shoulder of her yellow blouse. As he approached he could see the intelligent yet humorous twinkle in her deep blue eyes. It was the first time a woman had taken his breath away since Elizabeth.  
  
“Oh, hello,” Linda waved. “Are you Ferb’s father?”  
  
“Um….” Lawrence tried to remember his name, “Yes, yes, I am. Lawrence Fletcher.” He extended his hand.  
  
“It looks like our boys have been having a blast together. Maybe we should set up a play-date sometime?”  
  
“I, uh, I mean, Ferb, would like that very much.”

  
  


A few months later, Linda dropped her kids off at the Garcia-Shapiro house on Maple Drive. “You kids be good now,” she said, “Lawrence and I will be out late at the Love Händel concert so don’t wait up.”  
  
“Mom, I’m too old for a baby-sitter,” Candace whined.  
  
“Good. Then you can help Isabella’s mom look after three little kids. Bye now.” She opened the door to Lawrence and his son. “Hi boys. Ferb, Phineas is waiting in the living room.”  
  
Ferb waved his thanks, then ran into the room.  
  
Phineas was sitting on the couch, nose pressed against the front window. From there he could watch his mom get into the car with Mr. Fletcher. He smiled at the other boy when he entered the room. “Hey Ferb,” he hopped down from his perch, “Isabella’s at a Lil’ Sparks meeting, but she said we could play with her Skiddley Whiffers set. Sound good?”  
  
Ferb nodded.  
  
“Awesome. Then I know what we’re going to do today.”


End file.
